Protesters demand answers from Facebook regarding new policy

Charging that Facebook wants to take control of their personal information, tens of thousands of the social network's users joined online protest groups Tuesday to denounce a new company policy that they view as a threat to their privacy.

Others simply canceled their accounts.

Protesters demanded that the Palo Alto-based Web site provide detailed answers to questions regarding a change to its "terms of service" policy that appeared to give Facebook legal rights to users' pictures, videos, messages and notes, even if the user had left Facebook and deleted his or her profile.

In a message posted Tuesday night on user homepages, Facebook released a statement saying they decided to restore the previous terms of use until they "resolve the issues that people have raised" after receiving questions and feedback about the new policy.

The change, made weeks earlier, came to light over the holiday weekend after a blog associated with Yonkers, N.Y.-based Consumers Union on Sunday accused Facebook of seeking to "do whatever it wants" with users' content. The company has 175 million registered users.

"Make sure you never upload anything you don't feel comfortable giving away forever, because it's Facebook's now," stated the post, which was written by Chris Walters.

In a response on the company's blog, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said on Monday, "Our philosophy is that people own their information and control who they share it with."

But Facebook users brushed off his statement, and quickly pointed out in multiple postings on sites all over the Internet that Facebook had done nothing to change its troublesome new terms of service.

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"If the TOS doesn't mean I give Facebook the rights to use pictures of my family/friends/kids, why does it give so many people that impression?" asked a group calling itself "People Against the New Terms of Service" in a letter to Zuckerberg and his legal team. The letter outlined the group's three major issues that they want the company to address.

"Will I wind up seeing pictures of my niece staring at me from a bus stop at some point and be told I shoulda read the fine print?" the group further asked in its letter.

The group also demanded that Facebook explain what would stop the company from distributing artistic work posted on Facebook by artists or musicians or bloggers.

Eric Goldman, director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University, said Facebook might have been able to avoid the uproar by writing the new policy in English rather than in threatening legalese.

"What they (Facebook) are trying to say is Facebook can run its service pretty much how it wants, and we can't sue them because they do that," Goldman said. "I think most users would be cool with that."

Goldman, who has written or reviewed dozens of privacy policies and terms-of-use agreements, said he has learned to avoid language that can be misconstrued.

"This is not about the user agreement, this is about people's trust in Facebook," he said. "This raises the specter that maybe we really can't trust Facebook."

It's not the first time a change to a "terms of service" agreement offered by an Internet company has prompted a countrywide rebellion. Over the past decade, Internet users have become increasingly suspicious of giant companies like Google, Yahoo and Facebook and more inclined to fight back using the same worldwide communications platforms that the companies provide, to create a balance of power.

In 1999, users of Geocities organized a boycott after Yahoo bought the Web community and drafted a new user agreement that appeared to claim ownership of the content its users had created.

In 2006, YouTube was forced to clarify its policy after bloggers accused the site of seeking rights to resell their work.

And in late 2007, Facebook made changes to a controversial advertising service called Beacon after users objected when their shopping and other activities were broadcast to friends.

Julius Harper, a video game producer living in Los Angeles and a co-founder of the 52,000-strong "People Against the New Terms of Service," said Facebook had contacted him and Tuesday night was still working to answer the group's questions.